Leicester Tigers will be glad to see the back of December – and 2017 to be truthful

They head into the New Year in ninth place in the Aviva Premiership table with a whole heap of work to be done if they are to take their place in the play-offs.

The thought of a top-two finish and a home semi-final looks fanciful in the extreme.

A 30-6 defeat at Premiership leaders Exeter Chiefs on New Year’s Eve was their fourth consecutive loss on the league front and next week’s home clash with London Irish has become a must-win affair – and a bonus point is high on the list of priorities if Leicester are to push back into the play-off frame.

Tigers were forced to make a switch before yesterday’s game. Mat Tait reported a stiff back and dropped to the bench with Jonny May switching to full-back and Nick Malouf starting on the wing.

They made a scratchy start, too, knocking on the opening kick-off to hand the hosts a scrum and a penalty then pushed the Chiefs to within 10m of the Tigers’ line.

But they were unable to capitalise and Tigers won a penalty of their own to end the immediate danger.

When they did finally get into the Chief’s 22, they won a penalty as Exeter collapsed a scrum and George Ford levelled matters.

However, the home side restored their slender advantage in the dying seconds of the half when Steenson slotted a penalty from 22m.

With the wind at their backs Tigers would have fancied having a real crack at the defending champions in the second half.

However, though they created enough chances to have made a real contest of the game, it was Exeter who took theirs to run away with the bonus point win.

Ford levelled the scores with a penalty on 41 minutes but although they were to get beyond the Chiefs five-metre line on a handful of occasions after that, they were unable to add to their tally.

Henry Slade dives over to score his side's second try at Sandy Park (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

Instead, Exeter ran in four tries over the course of the second half. The first came in the 53 minute through flanker Don Armand and the second followed on 64 minutes when Slade broke clear as Tigers’ defenders failed to deal with a high kick.

Trailing 20-6 at that point Tigers were on the ropes and the knockout blow was landed on 71 minutes when Chiefs worked the ball wide where lock forward Jonny Hill scored in the corner.

Insult was added to injury in the final minute when back-to-back penalties took Exeter to the Leicester five-metre line and, from the resulting line-out, replacement hooker Jack Yeandle was driven over the line to complete a memorable 2017 for Exeter and one that Tigers will be only too happy to see consigned to the history books.